
Europeans wanted to explore because of God, gold, and glory. They did it for their faith, as well as to become rich, and also to be famous and remembered by everyone as a hero. Another thing that led Europeans to explore was cutting out the middle man. The middle man was the person who traveled around, trading the goods that people told them to. However, this caused the middle man to make more money and for trading to become more expensive. So, the Europeans wanted to find their own routes to trade on so they didn’t have to spend so much money.
Some things that helped European exploration were scientific inventions. Some scientific inventions that helped exploration were the barometer, thermometer, telescope and the microscope. The perfect mix, which consisted of education, technology, government, and science, helped exploration.
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The Columbian exchange was the trade of goods between the new world and the old world. Both places got many resources they had never seen before. For example, the new world got things like bananas, sugarcane, rice, grapes, and livestock, and the old world got things like corn, tomatoes, pineapples, and tobacco. Europe got many resources that they would use a lot; without those resources, they wouldn’t be able to make the foods that they are known for. Even to this day, we can see that these resources are in the places that they got traded to. Without the Columbian exchange, many countries wouldn’t have the foods and resources that they do. Although both places got these great resources, the new world also got a number of diseases that the Europeans were carrying. Because of these diseases, much of the population of natives died.
European countries conquered many parts of the Americas. France controlled a part of modern day Canada, and they made Quebec. Even to this day, people who live in that part of Canada still speak French, and much of the culture there is influenced by the French. England controlled much of modern-day U.S., they conquered this area so that there were less native americans, and they made colonies so the people were under their control. Spain controlled modern day mexico, some Caribbean islands, and a lot of land near the west of south america. They conquered this area and many native americans died, so then they controlled that area. |
The Europeans had many impacts on the native Americans when they conquered places. The natives were forced to become Catholic. They were forced to learn European languages. They got diseases from the Europeans. The Europeans were already immune to those diseases but then when the germs got to the natives, much of the native population died because of diseases, such as the plague and smallpox. Also, the native people got resources from the old world because of the Columbian trade.
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When the European explorers traveled to new places, something happened, called the triangular trade. The triangle trade consisted of trade between Africa, the Americas, and Europe. Africa traded slaves to the Americas, the Americas traded sugar, tobacco, cotton, and other raw resources to europe, and Europe traded manufactured goods to Africa. During this trade, however, Europe was the only place that was acutally making money. The other two places were just working to stay alive.
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This thinglink is highlighting some of the things about European Exploration.